Arsenal lost Alexandre Lacazette to Lyon this summer and allowed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to leave on free transfers in January to Barcelona
By Mosope Michaels
Manchester City have finally agreed to allow Brazilian striker, Gabriel Jesus, to leave the Etihad stadium and move to North London club Arsenal in principle.
According to Sky Sports, there is still work to be done to complete the deal, including medical and personal terms but a fee of £45m is understood to have been agreed by the two clubs.
Man City signed two new strikers, Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez this summer, therefore, Jesus is likely to fall down the pecking order and see limited game time.
Arsenal, on the other hand, lost Alexandre Lacazette to Lyon this summer and allowed their former captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to leave on free transfers in January to La Liga giant, Barcelona.
Even though the Gunners have secured the services of Edward Nketiah, they have put in nearly 6 months of work with Jesus’ representative, Marcello Pettinati to ensure they were in a pole position to recruit him from The Citizens this summer.
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Jesus indicated his desire to move to the Emirates at the start of June in his desire to gain more playing time before the Qatar 2022 World Cup and the only hindrance to his signature has been the distance between the valuations of both clubs.
Jesus wants to reunite with Mikel Arteta having worked with him at City, and Arsenal are desperately in need of an attacker in his mould, while the opportunity for the Brazilian to assume more responsibility appeals too.
“Gabriel Jesus is a player who has a lot of talent and a lot of potentials, but he needs to have more playing time in order to gain confidence,” former Brazil international Ze Roberto tells Sky Sports.
“The mentality Pep Guardiola has is to rotate his whole team and give opportunities to every player, but I believe the best version of Gabriel Jesus is when he is motivated and playing consistently.
“When a player like Gabriel is in the team then out of it, it is very difficult for him to have stability and find confidence. I think it is always going to be difficult for that to change at Manchester City.”
Arsenal after reaching an agreement for Jesus with City will now shift attention to Leeds United forward Raphinha, whose initial bid was rejected because it didn’t meet their evaluation.
Meanwhile, Manchester City have agreed a deal with Leeds to sign midfielder Kalvin Phillips for a fee in the region of £45m to £50m.
England international Phillips is moving closer to leaving his boyhood club, where he came through the academy and flourished under former boss Marcelo Bielsa.